Jason Statham: the career so far - in pictures

Jason Statham: the career so far - in pictures

As the boy from Sydenham tries to get in touch with his sensitive side in his latest movie Hummingbird, we look back on his action hero career so far, the movies that made him Hollywood's most bankable Brit

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Jason Statham was born in Sydenham, south London, in 1967. He was spotted by a modelling agency when competing for the British national diving team. During a gig modelling for French Connection, he was introduced to Guy Ritchie, who gave Statham an audition for the part of Bacon, a street-wise con artist in Ritchie's 1998 directorial debut . Statham had spent some time in his youth hawking slightly dodgy goods, so he was a natural and shone in the role

Ghosts of Mars

The One

Statham has always held martial arts stars from the east in high regard. He has cited Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan as major heroes and his martial arts ability has seen him fit right in with that celebrated company. Here he is with another great exponent of chop-socky, Jet Li, in 2001's

Transporter 2

Training as an athlete and in mixed martial arts and kickboxing means Statham is more than able to do all his own stunts, just like this from 2005's . 'I've spent all those years learning how to do certain skills, and then that competitive spirit kicks in and you want to do the stunts. Basically, it's the the male competitive ego at work'

Crank

Now we're talking! In 2006's , Statham plays professional assassin Chev Chelios, who learns his rival has injected him with a poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops. So, in this scene, he is forcing a doctor to zap himPhotograph: Lionsgate/Allstar

The Bank Job

In 2008, Statham enjoyed critical success with , a film loosely based on an historic London bank caper from the 1970s. Statham, although still playing a streetwise cockney ducker and diver with stubble, proved what a good actor he can be and, what's more, his character's name is Terry Leather!

Death Race

Crank: High Voltage

Chev Chelios is back in 2009's . The action becomes even more cartoonish as Statham has his organs harvested and for the rest of the film he tries to track down his heart while charging the battery he is using as a temporary replacement

Crank: High Voltage

The Expendables

In 2010's , a CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent. Those mercenaries were a supergroup of action heroes. Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li et al

Gnomeo & Juliet

Killer Elite

Statham was back on more familiar territory in . Starring alongside Robert De Niro and Clive Owen, Statham plays a retired member of Britain's elite Special Air Service who is forced into action when his mentor is taken captive

The Expendables 2

Parker

Donald E Westlake, under the name Richard Stark, wrote many novels featuring career criminal Parker. The most well known film adaptation is 1967's classic
Point Blank directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin. Westlake wouldn't allow the use of the name Parker, so Marvin's charachter was called Walker. Following Westlake's death his widow agreed to the use of the name as long as more of the books were adapted for film. This year Statham took the title role in the simply named

Hummingbird

Statham's latest film is , in which he plays a homeless, damaged ex-special forces soldier on the run from a military court martial, navigating London's criminal underworld. See what Mark Kermode thinks about it
here